Tell me you were just kidding

Regarding Amy McCullough’s review of Girls Rock! [“Self-Rockualization,” WW, March 5, 2008], she seems to have confused her role as a film critic with somehow feeling responsible for criticizing the girls who appear in the film.  She completely missed the point of the film, and worse, she misused her power and responsibility as a journalist to personally and publicly attack an 8-year-old girl who has no effective way to defend herself. 

Does she really think that it’s OK to publicly humiliate an already fragile little girl with petty and hurtful name-calling? Is that her job as a film critic? These girls are not actors; they are just being themselves, and maybe for the first time being allowed to be themselves. For an adult to personally and publicly attack a child who appears in a documentary is just plain cruel —cruelty of the worst sort, to paraphrase the mean-spirited characterization used in her review.

Amy McCullough should admit that she got this wrong. She and WW owe Amelia a personal and public apology. This kind of journalism is shameful.

Ray Horton
Northeast 9th Avenue

A Sign of the times

Not even the OEA can fault Rep. Merkley for wanting the best for his children [“Charter Fuel,” WW, Feb. 27, 2008]. The question is, if Portland Public Schools were doing their job and putting out a decent product, why are they concerned? After all, Portland’s army of highly educated unionized workers should be able to mop up the floor with the uneducated cretins that charter schools hire, shouldn’t they?  If there was no need for charter schools, they wouldn’t exist.

Let’s face it, Portland schools are a joke. The only students glad for the education the OEA provides are illegal aliens. How can Johnny prepare for life in the real world when he can’t read without the help of books on tape, can’t write without MS Word spellcheck,  and can’t count without  a calculator. The sooner we shift to a voucher system for all students, the sooner we will democratize the education system, and graduate students that are at least as good as the best the Third World has to offer.

“Mark Kay”
Northwest 12th Avenue

Making a difference

Mark Noack’s story about prison work [“Trade Off,” WW, March 5, 2008] reminds me why we put Measure 17 in the Oregon Constitution:  special interest groups will work to undermine its effectiveness, and many political leaders and bureaucrats lack the will and imagination to put prisoners into useful work.

Businesses and labor unions who want to get a bigger share of taxpayers’ money have engaged in political interference to prevent inmate labor from being used effectively.

We wrote Measure 17 to give the Director of Corrections full discretion to implement work programs.  We deliberately left out any opportunity for people to sue to enforce Measure 17 because we didn’t want to create a new litigation circus.

The best kind of job training is to teach people how to show up on time, get a job done and take pride in their work.  The kinds of criminals who will be put in the custody of the Department of Corrections by Initiative Petition 40 are less violent and can more easily be put on work crews in our communities.  These work crews can engage in reforestation, building parks and even helping programs such as Habitat for Humanity build homes.

Initiative Petition 40 specifically refers to the use of work camps.  We are trying to pry open the imagination of corrections officials who do not seem to “get it.” 

Inmate work is not just about sophisticated industry.  It is about rolling up your sleeves and making a difference.  We can put thousands of inmates to work improving our forests and building parks, or even cleaning up graffiti and trash—if the governor and his Corrections officials simply demonstrate the courage and imagination to do so.

Kevin L. Mannix
GOP congressional candidate

CORRECTION:

Last week’s story “Hostile Takeover” incorrectly reported Mayor Tom Potter’s stance on a 2007 ballot measure that gave City Hall greater control over the Portland Development Commission. Potter supported the measure. WW regrets the error.